Castrol GP Predictor Summary – Barcelona 2013

Scherzingers Rejects lead was reduced to a mere 84 points. It is diminishing, although nowhere near the rate at which the tyres did in Barcelona over the weekend.

On the Up
The three most improved for the week are Colin Chapman Team, Terrible Traffic and Scuderia Forza. All three picked the podium correctly, moving up 16, 20 and 25 positions respectively.

Scuderia Forza had great week, but was hit by Grosjean’s retirement. Without this, it could have been even better! Either way though, 92 points is very good return for such a difficult race to predict.

One to Forget
Poor weekends for All Aussie GP gropers, Kolominos and wirralsigns, losing 16, 17 and 19 places respectively. All three picking Kimi to win the race and Vettel to finish 2nd. Back to the drawing board for Monaco in 2 weeks’ time!

The only way is up
With 43% accuracy, and having predicted the top 4 correctly, KimiKaze XI is progressing nicely. Another week like that will see the team rocketing towards mid table.

Usher’s XI is now bottom of the league, languishing on 104 points. With only 15 points outside of the podium positions this week, it was not one to dwell on.

Nobody saw it coming
Esteban Gutierrez is still yet to score a point, but he did enjoy his first taste of leading a Grand Prix on Sunday. Of course this was caused by not pitting, but as I have discussed in my previous feature, people questioned whether Gutierrez was the ‘real deal’ for F1 and it appears he is finally answering them. Dr James Beck has discussed how he was, for the first time, genuinely faster than Hulkenberg in his race notes.

Food for thought
The improved pace of the STRs. Vergne was unlucky not to finish, whilst Ricciardo only managed to pick up the solitary point. With some luck they could have been much further up the grid, and it would take a brave man to bet against this happening in Monaco.

Also, as many have alluded to already; as it’s so difficult to overtake around the streets of Monte Carlo, could we see a procession of cars behind a Mercedes? Is the race going to be won by whoever is bravest on the tyres and tries to undercut the most? A difficult week coming up for all, and many headaches with the predictions.

Remember when…
In this section there will be a question each week to test your memory from GPs gone by. The idea is not to look it up but see if you can remember it first!

Fernando Alonso has now won twice in Spain, (this year and Valencia 2012). Who was the last driver to win their home Grand Prix other than Fernando Alonso?
(Home meaning nationality, not where they currently reside)

(Answer will be posted in the next Predictor summary)

Last question’s answer
The question was: Kimi Raikkonen has now been on the Bahrain podium a staggering 6 times. Can anybody name the first year and who else was on the podium with Kimi that year?

Answer: Way back in 2005, Fenando Alonso won the Bahrain GP from pole. Jarno Trulli was 2nd, with Kimi rounding off the podium – finishing 32 seconds adrift.

I wonder if there is a problem with the mobile interface for the GP Predictor? It had me down as picking Massa for pole and I know for a fact I changed that, and I thought I’d swapped Kimi and Massa on the podium as well which would have netted me the extra bonus points.